Lemon made his first basketball hoop out of an onion sack and coat hanger, using an empty Carnation milk can to sink his first 2-point hoop.[9]

Lemon first applied to the Globetrotters in 1954 at age 22, finally being chosen to play in 1955. In 1980, he left to form one of his Globetrotters imitators, the Bucketeers. He played with that team until 1983, then moved on to play with the Shooting Stars from 1984 to 1987. In 1988, he moved on to "Meadowlark Lemon's Harlem All Stars" team. Despite being with his own touring team, Lemon returned to the Globetrotters, playing 50 games with them in 1994.[10]

In 1979, Lemon starred in the educational geography film Meadowlark Lemon Presents the World. Also in 1979, he joined the cast of the short-lived television sitcom Hello, Larry in season two, to help boost the show's ratings; in the same year, he played Rev. Grady Jackson in the movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. It was several years before he actually became an ordained minister himself.[18]

In 1982, Lemon was featured in the Grammy-nominated video Fun & Games, an interactive educational video produced by Optical Programming Associates and Scholastic Productions, on the then-emerging LaserDisc format.[19][20]

Lemon's estranged first wife, Willye, pleaded guilty to simple assault after admitting to stabbing Lemon with a steak knife in 1978.[21][22] After his first marriage ended in divorce,[22] Lemon married Dr. Cynthia Lemon in 1994.

^"The John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 28, 2015. Outside of Enshrinement, the John Bunn Award is the most prestigious award presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame.

^"Hall of Famers Index". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 28, 2015. See the "Category" column on the left of the page.